Events: Monday, February 17, 2014

Eric Woolfe reprises the title role in Doc Wuthergloom's Haunted Medicine Show. Photo by Dawn Weaver.

Metropolis Factory (50 Edwin Avenue)

7 p.m.

Doc Wuthergloom is a mainstay of our Halloween round-ups, but he and his possessed puppets performs occasionally throughout the year. There’s a one-night-only, chill-your-blood edition of his Haunted Medicine Show taking place; the premium ticket price includes entry to a “Dime Museum of the Damned.”

Gillian English stars in Drag Queen Stole My Dress, which will be getting a one-night-only preview in Toronto. Detail of a photo by Dahlia Katz.

Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West)

8 p.m.

Gillian English was at the New York Frigid Fringe Festival last year in Love in The Time of Time Machines, and it must have gone over well, because she’ll be returning this year—and once again, there will be a one-night-only preview/fundraiser for her show here in Toronto. Drag Queen Stole My Dress is her autobiographical account of a pre-emptive divorce and a Fringe tour theft, and how they’re linked. Written and performed by English, the show is directed by fellow Fringe veteran Chris Gibbs.

If Valentine’s went particularly well for you and your partner (or you and someone else, or just you), and you want to take things further—say, to group play, this could be the event for you. I’d Tap That is a adult “play party” hosted at Oasis Aqualounge, open to men and women (trans and cis) aged 19-35—all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome. The evening will also double as a live sex shoot (in a sectioned-off area) for Spit Magazine—attendees interested in participating can contact the organizers and RSVP in advance.

It’s 1931 in Berlin, and the Nazis are on the brink of supremacy. But there remains another side to the city—one that’s decadent, permissive, and artistic. And that’s the world we meet when we’re beckoned into the extravagant and sleazy Kit Kat Klub by eccentric Emcee and his troupe of saucy dancers, performing “Willkommen.”

Cabaret’s primary plotline begins with the arrival of American writer Cliff Bradshaw (David Light). Without a real agenda, he’s come to Berlin to work on his novel and teach English. A patron of the Kit Kat Klub, he catches the eye of the star performer Sally Bowles (Kylie McMahon). A natural stunner, Sally is a bubbly young Brit with a powerhouse voice, a dancer’s grace, and a reputation for flitting from man to man like a bumblebee in a flowerbed. It’s not long before she and Cliff fall in love—though the question of whether he’ll be able to satisfy her wild side constantly hangs over their heads. The sweetness lacking in their relationship can be found in the romantic pairing of the boarding house landlord Fraulein Schneider (Adeen Ashton Fogle) and Jewish shop owner Herr Schultz (Don Berns). As appealing as they are, though, these middle-aged lovebirds are just as susceptible to trouble and heartbreak as their younger counterparts.

Ichimaru playing the shamisen. Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Avenue)

11 a.m.

Ichimaru—once one of Japan’s most famous geishas—left the profession in the 1930s to pursue a career in entertainment. Never really leaving her past life, she became known for adorning herself in the traditional geisha garb when performing in concert or on television. “From Geisha to Diva: The Kimonos of Ichimaru” exhibits several decades’ worth of outfits and personal effects, shedding light on the woman behind the makeup.

Celebrate all things cold and icy this Family Day weekend with the HarbourKIDS Skating Festival. Bundle up and take to the outdoors for a variety of skating shows and activities—you can even try your hand at carving an ice sculpture. When the cold gets too much, warm up indoors with dance workshops, craft classes, theatre productions, and more.

Film critic Shlomo Schwartzberg is spending his Mondays for the next several months on a lecture series about the career of one of America’s greatest commercial filmmakers. Defining Greatness: Director Steven Spielberg launched on January 20 with a examination (and clips) of some of Spielberg’s greatest hits (E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Lincoln). On January 27, the series looks at early films like Duel and Jaws, before moving weekly through the rest of Spielberg’s body of work. There’s a flat fee of $90 for the whole series, or drop-in prices for single lectures.

The word “idiot” was originally used in ancient Greece to describe a person unconcerned with public affairs like politics, but dedicated to following private pursuits. The setting of Robert E. Sherwood’s 1936 romantic comedy Idiot’s Delight, a failing luxury hotel in the Italian Alps called the Hotel Monte Gabriele, initially seems to be full of idiots: newlyweds on their honeymoon, a group of burlesque singers and their manager, a blissfully genial waiter, and a couple of ornery managers sour over the lack of business. And when a spark flies between a beautiful and mysterious Russian and a smooth-talking American showbusinessman, while the other guests dance, drink, eat, and sing, there’s another piece of juicy plot that can be used to distract themselves, and the audience, from the war that’s literally raging outside the hotel windows.

Anthony Malarky and Anita Majumdar from Same Same But Different. Photo by Michael Cooper.

Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson Avenue)

7:30 p.m.

Bollywood is the force that brings two stories of self-exploration together in Same Same But Different. After her mother’s life is changed by a run-in with the world of Indian cinema, Aisha—a Canadian-born actress—realizes that she must face her prejudices about nationality and skin colour in order to rise to stardom.